The face of 'Vibrant' Wellington
Politics can be an interesting business, but when people think of political scandal, local government does not often come to mind. I have no doubt that one of the many reasons for the chronic low voter turnout in local body elections is simply because it is not seen as being particularly exciting.
With the background of one of the Government’s support parties imploding, in a most violent and public fashion, this seems even more so. The best we’ve seen so far in the local government space has been Len Brown crying about his credit cards, and a rate-payer funded trip to play with sand castles.
Here in Wellington we are (sadly or thankfully – take your pick) rather short of lively political scandal. The major thing that comes to mind is the recent press conference which ended up in a shouting match between Sir Bob Jones and Kerry Prendergast…
“Why does it have to go down the f… Golden f… Mile? It doesn’t have to go down the Golden Mile . . . all right, it’s not hard . . . We’ve got heaps of streets here . . . We want [people] to walk and have cycles and cafes and all that stuff.”
Nice one Bob, keep it classy!
WCC Watch 
Sir Bob reckoned he would have halved costs at the council. “If I were running the show, as a dictator, I would halve the costs. It’s just outrageous, the tokenism.” In some cases you would have to agree that this is the right way to go. Four of the lowest perfoming councillors with no extra responsiblites have just got 3.2% or $2000 increases.
One of the other worst performing councillors Stephanie Cook, who was rated rock bottom “very poor” in a recent performance survey, is paid more than $87,000 a year. What value for money is the ratepayer getting from Cook. She’s unlikely to stand next year so a vote for her is wasted anyway. It’s time to get some new, decent people on the council, and to cut out the deadwood.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/local/the-wellingtonian/3465187/Pay-rise-for-Wellington-city-councillors
Bob, Bob, Bob. Oh dear